A PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO BHEKI MLANGENI – LEST WE FORGET

This week, 35 years ago, my brother, friend and dependable comrade, Bheki “Mabhekza” Mlangeni, got his young life cut short by a parcel bomb.

The explosive(s) that were packed into what was referred to as a “Walkman” (cassette player) detonated the minute Cde Mabhekza switched on the device upon wearing its headphones. The explosion shattered his brains and instantaneously ended Cde Bheki’s life.

Everytime it is the 15 of February and I remember when the news of Mabhekza’s demise broke, I get devastated, angry and sad because of the barbarism, brutality and callousness of the apartheid colonialists. This day always reopens the wound that refuses to heal, afresh.

Personally, I met Cde Bheki at Wits University in 1986. He was one of the leaders of the student movement who distinguished himself through his selflessness, bravery, dedication to the peoples struggles and unwavering love for his people and country.

Cde Bheki was a militant African intelligentsia in the mould of Thomas Sankara and a committed human rights activist who detested injustice. It is not surprising that he pursued legal studies and ultimately practiced law.

As a young activist produced in the theatre and crucibles of the struggle for genuine decolonisation, I drifted closer to him due to his uncompromising views, posture and actions when it came to challenging the colonial system including its education system.

Without disclosing too much as I never went to that charade – so-called truth and reconciliation commission, together with Cde Bheki and other combatants on the Wits University campus, we undertook a number of ANC/MK underground missions whilst being students during the day and unknowingly to the apartheid colonial state apparatus, being liberation war combatants at night.

His activism including when he was a student at Fort Hare University where he had running battles with the Ciskei Bantustan Junta, also extended to the community as he understood the symbiotic relationship between the student struggles and those for genuine decolonisation.

After completing his legal studies at Wits University, cde Bheki joined the law firm, Cheadle, Thomson and Haysom as an Article Clerk. It was during this time when he was also continuing with his ANC/MK underground work that he met his untimely, brutal death.

It is reported that the apartheid colonial police hatched a plan to assassinate one of their own, the ruthless Captain Dirk Coetzee, who had defected to the ANC.

These heartless police working on the orders of their apartheid colonial masters packed explosives into the headphones of a Walkman. Since Dirk was at the time based in Lusaka, they addressed the boobytrap to him but disguised the “sender” as Bheki Mlangeni.

When Dirk did not collect the deadly parcel from the Lusaka post office, it was returned to the “sender”. Cde Bheki who was on study leave preparing for his Board exams at the time picked up the damn thing from his locker at work on that fateful day, the 15th of February 1991.

Without casting any aspersions, I guess his activist exuberance and inquisitiveness took the better of him. Hence, he rushed home in Jabulani, Soweto to listen to what was contained in the Walkman. That was a fatal mistake, as his brains were instantly shattered as soon as he placed the damn headphones of that deadly device next to his ears.

I can still vividly remember how we got into a fit and rage upon hearing of his tragic death. We were on campus (Wits University) in the late afternoon/early evening when we received the devastating news.

We quickly arranged the SRC kombi and dashed to his home in Jabulani. The sight of seeing neighbours and police outside his home was confirmation that Cde Mabhekza was indeed no more.

We were shattered, hurt but also enraged. A son of the soil was assassinated. We did not despair, as his demise became an inspiration to surge even more forward towards the goal of genuine decolonisation.

I am sad, cde Bheki, to inform you that the movement you loved so dearly and wholly dedicated your life to, to a point of tragically losing it at the hands of the apartheid colonial regime, is a shadow of its former glory.

It is ravaged by self-centredness of its current leaders, factionalism, sheer criminality especially corruption, greed, crass materialism & conspicuous consumption in the sea of poverty, despair and hopelessness, aloofness, arrogance and insensitivity to the genuine cries of natives amongst many other elements of an alien culture that has been entrenched throughout its ranks.

Your beloved movement, the African National Congress, has become something we do not know. It has alienated and is alienating its own base and cannot proudly and legitimately still claim to be the parliament of the people. The ANC has become extremely elitist and detached from the very political base it used to claim to represent.

Enough with my gripes as I digress. At least a hospital in your hood, Jabulani, has been named after you in your honour, Cde Bheki.

Sadly, the struggle for land in particular and genuine decolonisation in general is not over yet, as we soldier on albeit under an extremely hostile environment disguised as “democracy”.

We shall overcome and the struggle continues!

Lala ngoxolo, my dear brother, friend and comrade, Bheki Mlangeni!